The study investigated gender and leadership issues in public offices in South-East, Nigeria. Gender refers to the status of varied roles and actions that can be ascribed to men and women. The specific objectives were to examine the leadership issues/challenges encountered by women and men in public offices. The survey research design was adopted, the population was 1426 junior and senior staff category of seven public organisations in South-East, Nigeria. The results revealed that discrimination, prejudice and pressure from home were confirmed leadership issues /challenges encountered by women, and also insecurity, impatience and domination were leadership issues encountered by men respectively in public offices. The study proposed that promotion of leaders should be based on performance and not on gender.